Knowledgebase

Overview

ProFTPd© does not automatically reference /etc/hosts.allow or /etc/hosts.deny to restrict access to the FTP service. The purpose of this document is to provide an example of how to configure ProFTPd to utilize the Host Access Control feature from the command line to restrict access by IP address to FTP.

System Requirements:

To configure ProFTPd, you must have the following installed on your server:

• ProFTPd version 1.3.3 or higher
• mod_wrap

As the root user, run the following command to confirm that you have the correct version of ProFTPd and mod_wrap installed on your server:

proftpd -V | awk '/Version/ {print $0}; /mod_wrap/ {print "mod_wrap is installed"}'

The output will resemble the following:

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root@testserver [~]# proftpd -V | awk '/Version/ {print $0}; /mod_wrap/ {print "mod_wrap is installed"}'
  Version: 1.3.5rc1 (devel)
mod_wrap is installed
root@testserver [~]#

Configuration instructions

To configure ProFTPd, perform the following steps as the root user:

Main IP address

1. Open the /etc/proftpd.conf file with a text editor, add the following lines after the comments.

   1 2	TCPAccessFiles /etc/hosts.allow /etc/hosts.deny TCPServiceName ftp

2. Run the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_proftpd script to restart ProFTPd.
   Warning:

   You must specify both /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny or you will receive an error.

3. Add deny rules and test.
   Note:

   When ProFTPd rejects connections due to Host Access Control configuration, those failures are reported as authentication failures.

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   root@testserver [~]# ftp 10.1.1.1 Connected to 10.1.1.1. 220 ProFTPD 1.3.5rc1 Server (ProFTPD) [:10.1.1.1] Name (10.1.1.1:root): cptest 331 Password required for cptest Password: 530 Access denied ftp: Login failed ftp> quit 221 Goodbye.

Additional IP addresses

Each Virtual Host that requires Access Control will need an entry in the /etc/proftpd.conf file. Add the following lines to each Virtual Host container.

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TCPAccessFiles /etc/hosts.allow /etc/hosts.deny
TCPServiceName ftp

The following is an example of a VirtualHost container.

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<VirtualHost 10.1.1.1>
 ServerName ftp.testserver.tld
 AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/wcraft
 MaxClients 3 "Sorry, this ftp server has reached its maximum user count (%m). Please try again later"
 DirFakeGroup On ftpgroup
 DirFakeUser On ftpuser
 DefaultRoot ~
TCPAccessFiles /etc/hosts.allow /etc/hosts.deny
 TCPServiceName ftp
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